Key principles underlying sanctioning procedures applicable to occupational safety and health violations

This brief is aimed to equip policymakers and lawmakers with an overview of the main guiding principles that should underpin administrative and judicial sanctioning procedures applicable to OSH infractions to ensure that they are effective and fair.

It has been widely observed that many countries struggle to varying degrees in regulating their administrative and judicial sanctioning procedures as applicable to occupational safety and health law (OSH) infractions. The LABADMIN/OSH Branch has produced a brief to equip policymakers and lawmakers with an overview of the main guiding principles that should underpin such procedures to ensure that they are effective and fair.

The brief provides a general introduction (Section I); an outline of the variety of national laws that may regulate the sanctioning procedure (Section II); international labour standards that contain references to sanctions and the sanctioning procedure (Section III); the general principles applicable to sanctioning procedures (Section IV); and legislative techniques that should be observed when drafting the legislation that governs the sanctioning procedure (Section V).

The brief is complemented by a set of five studies in appendixes that provide a snapshot of the sanctioning procedures applicable to OSH law violations in Finland, France, Spain, Great Britain (United Kingdom) and the United States of America.

The brief and the national studies have been developed under the umbrella of the International Labour Organization (ILO) Flagship Programme “Safety + Health for All”.